News

Fatima centenary celebrations at St Mary Star of the Sea

Monday 15 May 2017

Bob Messina, Divine Mercy Apostolate

Centennial celebrations in honour of Our Lady of Fatima filled the church of Our Lady in West Melbourne with more than 200 devotees on Saturday, the day of the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, as well as the 100th anniversary of Mary’s first apparition.

Celebrants Fr Anthony Bernal PP and Fr Vel Maglica led the celebration, starting with the recitation of the Rosary with meditations on the Glorious Mysteries and the Fatima Prayers.

Fatima hymns were interspersed with the recitation.

Solemn Mass followed, with a formal Act of Consecration made to the Immaculate Heart of Mary after the homily, with the whole congregation joining in.

The statue of Our Lady was solemnly incensed and blessed with Holy water by Fr Bernal, the main celebrant, followed by the formal Consecration to the Immaculate Heart:

O Holy Virgin, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Mother of God and tender Mother of men, in accordance with your ardent wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate myself, my brethren, my country, and the whole human race to your Immaculate Heart.

Reign over us and teach us how to make the Heart of Jesus reign and triumph in us, and around us, as It has reigned and triumphed in you. Reign over us, dearest Mother, that we may be yours in prosperity and adversity, in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in life and in death.

O most compassionate Heart of Mary, Queen of Virgins, watch over our minds and hearts and preserve them from the deluge of impurity which you lamented so sorrowfully at Fatima. We want to be pure like you. We want to atone for the many crimes committed against Jesus and you. We want to all down upon our country and the whole world the peace of God in justice and charity.

Therefore, I now promise to imitate your virtues by the practice of a Christian life without regard to human respect. I resolve to receive Holy Communion regularly and to offer you five decades of the Rosary each day, together with my prayers, actions and sacrifices, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in a spirit of reparation and penance for my sins and the sins of others, for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls. Amen.

After the Mass, the procession with the statue of Our Lady took place outside the church with everyone joining in the singing of the Fatima hymn and upon re-entering, the celebration concluded with solemn Benediction.

As participant Maryse Usher reported, ‘It was a feast of devotions! A beautiful Rosary with meditations of reparation to the Immaculate Heart, Holy Mass with Fr Anthony Bernal's joyful and fervent homily on the Motherhood of Our Lady for each one of us, the incensing and blessing of the two Fatima statues, all consecrating ourselves and our loved ones to the Immaculate Heart, a procession with organiser Bob Messina's beautiful, smaller statue, then Exposition and Benediction. What a heavenly afternoon with Our Lady!’